The government only has one argument in favour of the Fiscal Treaty: If we vote NO, we will be unable to borrow money to fund public services. There will be no stability and so the ATM machines will seize up.

The government’s case comes down to access to the European Stability Mechanism fund. This is a €700 billion firewall that eurozone governments can draw on if other borrowing costs are too high.

From France and Holland to Slovakia and Greece, governments are falling victim to a European wide backlash against austerity. It seems no pro-austerity party is safe, with even Angela-Merkel’s Christian Democrats suffering a humiliating collapse in recent regional elections. Suddenly, it seems the debate in Europe is shifting away from austerity and towards a greater emphasis on boosting growth and creating jobs. So what is behind all this sudden talk of growth in Ireland and Europe and is the Fiscal Treaty fast becoming a dead duck?

The political establishment are terrified that the wider European revolt against austerity will derail their treaty.

Their response has been to distort the message coming from France and to claim that the No side will inflict Greek style suffering on the Irish people. In both cases, the evidence points in the opposite direction.

In the midst of all the media bluster about billions and bailouts, the most fundamental consequence of adopting the Fiscal Treaty into law is being ignored; namely the threat the Treaty poses to democracy.

The Irish political establishment are desperately spinning a new story line – that they were for growth all along and that they welcome the election of Hollande in France.

They claim that Hollande has only demanded an additional item or a protocol to the Fiscal Treaty which would encompass growth.

This is a lie because Hollande explicitly said, “he will re-negotiate the treaty on budgetary discipline not only for France, but for the whole of Europe," during a campaign speech in Paris on Saturday (17 March), adding that the pact focuses on austerity only and does little to spur economic growth.

‘The emphasis on austerity is becoming increasingly unpopular, with opponents saying it creates a self-defeating cycle of economic stagnation leading to lower tax receipts. It has been denounced in large rallies in Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic recently, and has proved to be a losing plank in any recent European election where it was tested.’

The government clearly understands that the forthcoming referendum on the Austerity Treaty will be a battle between people’s fear and their anger, and they are determined to make fear the centerpiece of the Yes campaign. Within hours of the official launch of the Referendum their fear strategy was in full swing.

One of the tricks that the rich play on ordinary people is to exclude them from real decision making processes. Typically, this is done by monopolising the airwaves and speaking in a technical language that is almost impossible to understand. So-called ‘experts’ replace real democratic discussion and the elite consensus is then reinforced by being trotted out endlessly.

In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett TD for the People Before Profit Alliance and Finance spokesperson for the United Left Alliance, has warned that the Fiscal Treaty, if implemented, will give greater powers to the EU and ECB over Ireland’s budgetary allocation and make it much more difficult for any Irish government to choose where to allocate funds on public expenditure.

Bank bailouts, savage attacks on health, education and welfare budgets, cuts to the public sector, wage cuts and extra taxes have devastated the lives of working class people in Ireland.

These austerity policies have also made the economic crisis much worse.

Every week the government press office releases some new ‘feel-good’ story ranging from ‘we’ve turned a corner’ or ‘we’re back on track’ to Michael Noonan’s bizarre statement that the Irish economy is about ‘to take off like a rocket’. The reality, however, is a very different.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) stresses that it opposes the new treaty which has just been signed by 25 countries at the European Summit. This treaty will impose even greater budgetary austerity in Europe and hamper the recovery in employment. The European trade union deplores the fact that growth and employment are not the focus of detailed commitment in the same way as budgetary rigour.

Danish MEP Soren Sondegaard will speak at public meeting in Liberty Hall on Monday March 5 at 7.30. Also speaking will be Paul Murphy MEP, Richard Boyd-Barrett TD and Jimmy Kelly, regional secretary of the trade union Unite. The meeting has been organised by the Campaign Against the Austerity Treaty.

Soren Sondegaard is a Danish MEP from the Red-Green Alliance and an opponent of the neo-liberal policies being forced upon the peoples of Europe by the European Commission at the behest of the governments of Germany and France.

The United Left Alliance rejects the Austerity Treaty and calls for No vote in referendum

The ULA today rejected the Austerity Treaty as a bankers treaty, in continuity with the bank bailouts already made, and an attack on the living standards of ordinary people and the public services on which we depend. The ULA demands a full public debate on the treaty and will vigorously campaign for a ‘no’ vote in the coming referendum.

‘Political choices get reduced to Pepsi or Coke – to slight nuances of taste, slight nuances of policy, slight alterations of design to account for local traditions, some loosening here and there, but never any major deviation from the core golden rules… ’

This is what Thomas Friedman wrote in the Lexus and the Olive Tree, which was a wry but fulsome defence of neoliberal globalisation. There are supposed to be no real choices left and politics gets reduced to a PR game to choose which puppet will implement the rules of the market.